Helping you calculate how much lunch money you've lost since 1972

February 3, 2005 10:22 AM

The Museum of Nerd Watches have some completely awesome watches. Take for example This watch with a built-in space-invaders type game. How about one that generates lotto numbers? What's the boiling point of that liquid? Check it with your directional temperature gauge watch!
posted by bigtimes (21 comments total)

Oh man, I remember that Casio watch! That's so sad cool!
posted by LondonYank at 10:28 AM on February 3, 2005

For the non-nerd . . .
Watchismo

Nerds can still find items of interest:

for music Nerds!

for Hippie Nerds

Dan Rather!

Serious &$^%ing Nerds

spy nerds!

All his watches are so awesome you should really check them out.
posted by JBennett at 10:39 AM on February 3, 2005

Wow, nice followup, JBennett.
posted by bigtimes at 10:43 AM on February 3, 2005

NerdWatch! I first understood your post a bit differently:

"Son, you've been becoming less 'cool' at school, so we're putting you on NerdWatch for a few weeks."
posted by ORthey at 10:45 AM on February 3, 2005

great link. I still use my casio DW-1000 (that my mom gave me in junior high) when I jog. I've left it on a few times by accident and noticed people checking it out, well maybe they were pointing and laughing. there's an old casio TV commercial at the bottom of this G-Shock history page.
posted by lazymonster at 11:13 AM on February 3, 2005

JBennett: I loved your work with Wilco! [/rimshot]

I had a casio game watch that played a "shoot the spaceship" type game during 5th grade in '82. Eventually it was forbidden on school grounds.

Can't find it on this page, though.
posted by sourwookie at 11:22 AM on February 3, 2005

This was the best watch ever. Lots of fun to play when class was boring. Why do they no longer make this?
posted by SisterHavana at 11:42 AM on February 3, 2005

SisterHavana - though I can't find a pic of it.. I had the version of that watch that actually had a joystick... came with very little plastic joysticks that attached to the face...
I miss that watch.
posted by niteHawk at 12:09 PM on February 3, 2005

I had one of these in Junior High. I wish I still had it. It would come in real handy now that I don't know anyone's phone number due to the cell phone effect. Then I would only have to worry about what to do when I forget my cell phone and my watch.
posted by sp dinsmoor at 12:09 PM on February 3, 2005

The Casio VDB1000 was my baby during the later primary school years, though as my thumb grew its usability decreased significantly!
posted by channey at 12:32 PM on February 3, 2005

Ah, the days sitting in class, listening to the watches beeping. Started about 5 minutes before the hour and continued until about 5 minutes after. In EE and CS classes, everyone had a digital watch.
posted by tommasz at 12:33 PM on February 3, 2005

I graduated to a boring Omega Diver's watch, which does nothing but tell the time 1000ft underwater, about fifteen years ago. My journey through the exciting world of watches seemed at an end. This excellent post has re-awakened the teenage gadget-lust in me and I'm off to Ebay!
posted by surfdad2 at 12:43 PM on February 3, 2005

niteHawk, I had that watch too! I followed every link in this thread hoping someone would link to it, then I started to wonder if I'd imagined it.
It took me about two weeks to lose all the joysticks, though.
posted by Mamapotomus at 12:44 PM on February 3, 2005

I bought a red LED watch, using paper round money, when they first came out in the 70s. I wore it to school, and everybody wanted to press the button on the side, and see the time. It was heavy as heck and the batteries crapped out after about three days. At the moment I have a G-Shock about the size and weight of a hockey puck.
posted by carter at 1:27 PM on February 3, 2005

I remember the beepinq watches too, except sometimes my friends and I would all synchronise our watches so that as the hour turned, they'd all beep simultaneously, thereby freaking out the teacher and anyone else not in on it. Man, were we cool.
posted by garethspor at 1:38 PM on February 3, 2005

I wonder what the sales pitch for the thermo-temp watch was... 'hey baby, let me get a reading... you're so hot you're off the scale!'

glayven!
posted by anthill at 1:40 PM on February 3, 2005

That was fun. Thanks bigtimes (and JBennett).
posted by The God Complex at 2:10 PM on February 3, 2005

GeekFilter
posted by bigtimes at 2:28 PM on February 3, 2005

This was the best watch ever.

No way, man. My Q-Bert watch was sooo much cooler.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:08 PM on February 3, 2005

Holy crap I'm a nerd. I had a later generation red LED watch first. Later came one of the Casio calculator watches, then I had to have Casio's first waterproof temperature sensing watches. That thing was pretty nifty.

I dig the ambient/directional temperature one in the FPP. I can think of all kinds of nerdy uses for that. Say, exactly how hot is the asphalt on a road through Death Valley at noon in the late summer? Are those steaks done yet? Is that firepit cold-out yet or not?

Years later I found another Casio that had a small, realtime (and grossly inaccurate) Solar system map that displayed the relative positions of the planets, and Halley's comet for some reason. I think the display had about 16 or 32 places of resolution for each planet's orbit. Ah, here it is. Sweet. Mine was all plastic, instead of the metal bezel displayed there, and the depth rating was indicated in feet rather than bars of pressure.
posted by loquacious at 6:27 PM on February 3, 2005

Hmm...didn't see any mention of what I consider to be the ultimate nerd watch: the nixie tube wristwatch.
posted by nTeleKy at 3:13 PM on February 4, 2005